This is a must read book! It’s well written, exciting and scary. The technologies that the book is about have many potentially positive and negative outcomes. If you believe that society will still be dominated in the future by "zero sum" philosophies, at the individual, corporate and governmental level, then the outcome looks very scary. If you believe that society is ready to adopt "non-zero sum" games then the outlook is exciting and enormous changes will result that are positive. Non-zero sum games are behaviors that include "the unique human power and pleasure that comes from doing something that enriches everyone, a game where nobody has to lose for everyone to win." Zero sum games are best typified by our sports. There is a winner and there is a loser. When the rules are bent or broken, then tragic results can occur, i.e. Enron, which is zero-sum corporate behavior personified. Or, a present nemesis, spam. Spam is where one person wins and everyone else looses.
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I find the idea of an Innovation Commons challenging and exciting. I'm struggling with where we go from here.
ReplyDeleteIn a physical commons, we might find ourselves drifting into conversation, raising questions and issues.
In this "virtual commons", how do we start? Who plants the seed that grows into discussion? Or the grain of sand that serves as an irritant that becomes a pearl?
Frankly, I'm feeling a bit at sea.
Can Paul or someone post a question or a challenge that will get the ball rolling?
I have this mental image of a bunch of people milling around in the commons, not quite making eye contact, looking thoughtful, maybe a bit uneasy in some cases, waiting for someone to say something more than "looks like rain, doesn't it?"
I see an innovation commons in an abstract way. It can be a physical space or it can be a cyberspace. It can be a team that works together daily or one that exists for a period of time and members come and go. People can know each other well or not know each other at all. My premise is that the priciples are the same for all variations. it's the implementation - tools, processes etc. that changes.
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